#readwise # Live Updates: Russia Pushes Into Area Around Chernobyl, Ukraine Officials Say  ## Metadata - Author: [[nytimes.com]] - Full Title: Live Updates: **Russia Pushes Into Area Around Chernobyl, Ukraine Officials Say** - URL: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/02/24/world/russia-attacks-ukraine ## Highlights - It was in the toxic marshes of the Chernobyl exclusion zone in northern Ukraine that one of the most dangerous battles was playing out. “National Guard troops responsible for protecting the storage unit for dangerous radioactive waste are putting up fierce resistance,” said Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to the interior minister. **Should an artillery shell hit the storage unit, Mr. Herashchenko said, “radioactive dust could cover the territory of Ukraine, Belarus and the countries of the European Union.** ”Mr. Zelensky said on Twitter that Russian forces were trying to seize Chernobyl, the site of the worst nuclear accident in history. The site is now inside a protective zone covering about 1,000 square miles, including part of the shortest direct route from Belarus to Kyiv. **“This is a declaration of war against the whole of Europe,”** Mr. Zelensky said. - In the end, **the war appeared to be playing out exactly as the American intelligence community said it would when officials first warned about the threatening movement of Russian troops toward Ukraine’s borders last fall.** - The country’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said that **Ukraine was facing “a full-scale attack from multiple directions”** but that it “continues to defend itself.” **Civilians lined up at recruitment offices to take up arms.** ## New highlights added February 25, 2022 at 6:36 PM - **Weapon remnants from a lethal strike in eastern Ukraine, most likely carried out by Russia, suggest the possible use of cluster munitions, a type of weapon prohibited by most countries**, according to arms experts. - A photo of the suspected aftermath shows what analysts say are the remains of a Tochka short-range ballistic missile with a cluster munition warhead — **essentially a shell filled with many smaller bomblets**.A 2008 international accord bans cluster munitions, but it is binding only on the countries that sign onto it. More than 120 countries have adopted the ban, but the holdouts include some of the largest military powers, including the United States, Russia, China, India and Brazil. But **because of the threat they pose to civilians, the use of highly indiscriminate weapons such as cluster munitions often violates the laws of war.**